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Some very good with some very bad

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 31 / 38
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The good in this game is very good.

*Its very free-form. You can roam in this game where ever you wish whenever you wish.
*There is much to keep you busy. With multiple guilds and quests in every town you can keep questing for days. Leveling up different skills and learning about things like alchemy is a game in itself.
*Its a beautiful game with great looking environments and interesting people.
*The story is solid, if not great.
*Combat is fun and involving, if not up to action game standards.

The bad in this game is very bad.

*The Elder Scrolls series has what may be the worst leveling/advancement system ever. It is a travesty. In order to become powerful you have to do the opposite of what would be intuitive. Leveling guides for the game spend a good amount of time talking about how to work around the system to advance. And if you don't manage to break their horrible system just right you will be in for a disaster because...

*World leveling is awful. I play RPGs to become someone. To advance from the lowly prisoner to a god among men. In Oblivion I play to bring higher levels to all mankind. Its a great service for the game people, but it is not a fun gameplay mechanic. As I level up, so does all the world. All that great gear I have been hoping to get? Once it was unheard of, now every shop and two-bit thief has it. Its just a little absurd, kills immersion and really hurts the fun factor. It also makes for some absurd situations. By accident as a level one character I found one of the gates of Oblivion. As a level one character I traveled to hell and defeated all the demons. Because just like the world levels up, it levels down. In Oblivion you never have a quest you cannot do, which deprives you of the feeling of success you usually get in such games when you find a place where you cannot advance and return later, more powerful, to slay your enemies. Not here.

*The world is bland. There are no dungeons with mighty powerful monsters and great treasure waiting for you to stumble accidentally on them. Only when you become mighty and powerful - then suddenly every dungeon is filled with amazing treasure. This randomness and blandness makes exploration of dungeons and locales pointless. In Oblivion if you have seen one dungeon, you have seen them all.

I should probably have played Oblivion on the PC, where these problems can be fixed, leaving only the positives. Overall, I think Oblivion is a decent game and will keep me busy for awhile. For now I pray that Bethesda does not carry on their advancement design and world leveling into Fallout 3 and make a mess out of that noble franchise.

Is Too Much Ever Enough?

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: January 15, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Oblivion is EXACTLY how I imagined an RPG should be like back in the 80's, while playing Ultimas on Commodore 64s and Atari STs.

Oblivion has weather. While there is no wind other than a constant, gentle breeze, you do get rain/thunderstorms, fog, snow (no blizzards though, because there's not much wind). You don't slip and fall on ice but the sound of your steps is different whether you walk on the road, on grass, on snow or on ice.

The world of Cyrodill is not exactly continent-size, maybe some 20-30 miles in any direction from downtown Imperial City but... what a world this is. Cities, settlements, camps, estates, roadside inns, ruins, caves, dungeons, mines, shrines. The landscape is made up of plains, hard-to-climb mountains, rivers, swamps, waterfalls, seas. You can travel on foot or you can ride a horse. You can fight your way into fame and fortune while doing good or you can sneak into other people's houses or pickpocket the unsuspecting. The guards will chase you and throw you in jail if you do illegal things but, if they like you enough, maybe they will look the other way sometimes. Powerful gods or humble people will ask you do 'little things' for them and, if you can make them happy, they will reward you according to their abilities. You can raise to the top of your profession, as a fighter, as a mage, as a thief or as an assassin or you can assemble your own little gang of dreamy crusaders so that you can fight evil and recover the relics of a legendary knight. Or you can do them all and become all, in sequence or make progress in all paths more or less simultaneously while moonlighting as a gladiator as well and, if still bored, how about helping a lady take care of the rats in her basement (that's NOT what you think) or some drunk guy at the inn get rid of the Trolls that took over his daddy's country estate? Oh and, I forgot, there's a world to save or... wait... there's TWO worlds, thanks to the Shivering Isles extension.

This game is so huge, I can't see how you could really 'finish' it. After more than 2 months of almost daily playing, I am maybe 75-80% into the main quest, half a way through the Knights of the Nine, only started the Shivering Isles adventures. I did become the realm's Chief Mage (and the titles earns me no respect from the scholar mages) and the grand master at the Fighters league, got myself 350,000 gold coins in my pocket, 2 comfortable houses and 2 nice offices, completed close to 100 quests, slaughtered 2000 creatures and hundreds of humans, murdered 4 or 5 and all but one by mistake (friendly fire), didn't even come close to the Thieves guild and, foolishly, made it impossible for me to ever join the Dark Brotherhood (these are the assassins). Also, I've never been a vampire and didn't yet start my career as a professional gladiator. I did massacre the peaceful dwellers of a small village but I did that under the influence of some drugs that made them look to me like bloody Orcs - that was the price to pay for infiltrating and destroying the source of that scourge. Oh, and while briefly in the land of Dementia - or was it Mania? - I did, willingly, push buttons that caused a few careless adventurers to go insane and I watched as they were becoming so. I humiliated a lovely princess - or was it a duchess? - and I killed so many fearsome monsters, I lost count myself but the game does keep a count so it's easy to know. In fact, the game keeps track of so many things... I could easily find out how many jokes I told, how many potions I made, how many horses I've stolen (one), how many hours I slept or how many books I read.

Well...? What do you think?

On the 'not so good' side, the game does slow down when you are fighting 4-5 monsters at the same time or when there are other things that keep the PS3 busy while you are fighting the baddies - like a fire burning. Loading/saving times are a bit too long but, while this is happening, you do get to read some randomly selected good advice on the screen.

The other thing that saddens me is that I don't believe the good people at Bethesda are working on the next chapter yet. I do hope that, as soon as they are done with Fallout-3, they are going to get busy with another adventure in Cyrodill or thereabouts.

My other problem is that I am now fighting with my kids over time on the PS3. We have a bunch of other games but, since Oblivion came into our house, I would say that 95%+ of our PS3 time was on Oblivion.

Sets the bar too high, ruins all other games

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: October 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

OK, I've been ruined so badly that all other games seem less appealing now. Guess I'll have to wait for Elder Scrolls V now :)

This is the best game I've ever played, period.

It was hard to stop. The flexiblity of gameplay it provides is phenomenal. Great graphics, non-repetitive actions, non-linear flow, awesome soundtrack, numerous challenges...I can keep going. I spent 5 months playing this game at least 2-3 days out of a week, lasting about 2 hours at least. It is so vast, engaging and challenging enough to keep it interesting. No wonder it's the game of the year.

Elder Scrolls Oblivion - Game of the Year Edition for the PS3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For anyone who is an an RPG fan and has a Play Station 3, look no further. In my opinion it is easily one of the Best, if not THE best game for the PS3 thus far.

The GOTY Edition is basically the Oblivion main game with Oblivion's 2 largest Expansion packs bundled in with it, "The Knights of the Nine" and the "Shivering Isles Expansion" pack.

The "leveled system" isn't perfect, as it is way too easy to level up an underpowered character while the in-game mobs/adversaries automatically get stronger so there is no going back to the newbie sewer dungeon as the rats and easy goblins have leveled up to minotaurs and goblin lords.

Thankfully, for casual gamers you can pretty much follow and beat the main quest at level 1 and for those who have underpowered characters, you can adjust the difficulty slider to an easier level.

For the more hardcore RPG gamers, you can easily get much more involved and with careful balancing and leveling of stats and skills you can build a character that is more than a match for the mobs on the default "medium" level and perhaps even hold your own at the "hardest" level on the difficulty slider. gamefaqs.com has some really good guides that can help you along with all that.

Anyway, the bottom line is that if you have a PS3 and you are into RPGs this game is definitley recommended.

Believe the Hype

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: November 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

What can I possibly say about this revolutionary computer RPG that hasn't been said?
To me this is arguably the best computer game in the history of video game, period.

'Oblivion' is a non-linear, free-form, 1st-person RPG, colored with beautiful next generation graphic that enhances the immersive gameplay set in the gigantic gameworld, where you can do anything anywhere anytime you feel like it.

There are over 20 cities and settlements, 300 quests, 300 dungeons, caves, ruins, tunnels, and whatnots available in the game (combining 'Knights of the Nine', official DLCs, and 'Shivering Isles').
Then there is TES Construction Set. Using this amazing toolset used by Bethesda to create TES IV Oblivion, there are literally over 2000 mods made by gamers like you and I, available for free and still coming out on a daily basis.

I spent close to 200 hours with over 50 mods installed and I only covered less than 70 quests. I was too busy crawling underground, fighting monsters, retrieving loots, selling them for better equipments and houses, decorating.
To hell with saving the world. I only finished half of the main quest, and I have no intention to finish it in the foreseeable future.

The production value is simply stratospheric. From character design, character model, environment, grass, tree, flower, water, animal, item, monster, building, right down to single pebble and stone, Bethesda paid so much attention to details that it is breathtakingly marvelous.

Music by Jeremy Soule and sound effects are another praise-worthy achievements.

No other RPG in the history of video game gives the gamer so much freedom in gameplay as it is so evident from the very beginning in character creation.
If you spend enough time, you can virtually create any actual person's face both living or dead in uncanny resemblance.

Whether you like it or not, I think 'Oblivion' has set the standard by which all future CRPG, and even other genres to some extent, will be measured for a long time.

To Bethesda's credit, 'Oblivion' successfully streamlined the CRPG mechanics from its beloved franchise into more accessible mainstream game that became a runaway success; or dumbing down for console kiddies as many describe, depends on how you look at it. I know many of people were turned off by the changes made from older TES series, and 'Oblivion vs Morrowind: Which is better?' is still one of the most fiercely-debated topic in the official forum. Since I have fond memories of all previous TES series, I won't get into the flaming war. I just don't see any constructive point of insisting one game over another. They all have pros and cons, and no game is perfect.

I couldn't read single review of new CRPG called 'Two Worlds' without comparing it to 'Oblivion'. What a burden and curse it is for 'Two Worlds', which has been brutally trashed by critics and users alike. I really love that game, too. Although I really enjoyed that game, it was ultimately not enough to erase the memory of 'Oblivion'. If 'Fallout 3' becomes anything close to the success of 'Oblivion', Bethesda Softwork will become the next formidable RPG Giant like 'Blizzard' / 'Black Isle' / 'Bioware' trinity once achieved back in the days. You can be sure Bethesda will come out with TES V, and its success is pretty much guaranteed no matter which direction it will take.

Now I think far too many game mechanics from the past CRPGs such as 'Ultima', 'Baldur's Gate', 'Wizardry' or 'Diablo' series stemmed from the limitation of technology at the time rather than game design choice. I still have the original copies of 'Baldur's Gate' and 'Diablo' series along with 'Ultima' series, 'Wizardry 8', 'Planescape: Torment', 'Fallout 1, 2', and of course 'Daggerfall' and 'Morrowind'.
Except for 'Morrowind', I don't see myself playing and enjoying those game as I once used to anymore.
I tried them recently and was pleasantly surprised how pathetically they are outdated now. The vidio gaming asthetics have grown exponentially since those days.

Even 'Morrowind' took some adjusting time to re-immerse myself. When I say technology, I am not just talking about graphic but the scope and possibilities that was just not feasible in the past. The improved technology doesn't always result in better game but it immensely helps to create immersive gaming world, and the technology lifted all the barriers for game developers to realize their vision into games. This will result in new convergent games that crossover the genres. Upcoming games such as 'Mass Effect' and 'Fallout 3' are the evidence of new gaming asthetics being formed right now.

What would you like to see in the future Bethesda RPGs in terms of game mechanics?

For me, one thing I really like to see is the interaction with NPCs improved. Radiant A.I. is the right direction for the NPC interaction, but I like to see more detailed implementation. In 'Gothic' series, NPCs actually perform various activities, which player character can also performs. NPCs react when weapons drawn upon or intruded by. I know these reactions in 'Gothic' are scripted events but the presentation makes them as if the NPCs were alive. NPCs in 'Oblivion', while acting on dynamic schedule, sometimes look like pantomiming. Many times I've witnessed the awesome NPCs interaction only possible with 'Radiant A.I', but many times NPCs walks around aimlessly in circle, too. The character deposition drops when weapon is drawn during conversation, but it would be nice to hear more distinctive reaction from NPCs about the fact. Daily routine could be more detailed in animation. Fishing, chopping woods, forging metals, making weapons, eating and drinking, the lists go on. I like to have more dialogue choices and right to refuse any quest. Many times you are given just one choice in 'Oblivion'.

Another thing is consequences of player character's action and its influence to the persistent world such as guilds. In 'Oblivion', your deeds, either good or evil, hardly create impact on the gaming world. Although there are more than one method to solve many individual task, and more than one result in outcome of the quest, it really doesn't change the grand scheme of the game. I heard 'Bethesda' is really working hard on this for the upcoming 'Fallout 3'. Multiple endings and various intricate political stands among different factions would be greatly appreciated.

Next thing is different combat mechanics for 3rd person perspective. 1st person perspective is outstanding in 'Oblivion' but it would be sweet to have the alternative combat mechanics in 'Vanity Mode' also. That way, gamers have choice between realistic 1st-person combat and more arcady 3rd-person combat. Accurate jumping mechanics like the one in 'Metroid Prime' would be awesome compared to the unrealistical moonwalking in the air in 'Oblivion'. More acrobatic combat moves like rolling and dodging would be fantastic additions.

Havoc engine is great, but I hope the object manipulation becomes more useful in the actual gaming world, quests, or combat in the next iteration.

And my pet peeve of the game, it's so difficult to fight the enemies while NPCs are around, especially the essential characters that you must protect.

These are merely the positive suggestions rather than pointing out the game's flaws.

New ideas to improve the immersion for too much open-endedness would be great idea to narrow the gap between linear RPG and non-linear RPG.

Making RPG and simulating more life-like world is the ultimate holy grail Bethesda has been working for since 'Arena', I am sure.
No matter which TES game you like the most, the pathetic reality is that the choice of CRPG is very scarce in the market right now, and we need more refined game like 'Oblivion' to embrace mainstream casual gamers without alienating the hardcore RPG gamers so that market will once be crowded with good CRPGs.

The newly released GOTY (Game of the year) edition of 'TES IV Oblivion' contains the original 'Oblivion' along with 'Knights of the Nine' and 'Shiverilg Isles'. Unfortunately, the rest of the official DLCs (Downloadable Contents) are not available in the package. But the new PSN is now up and running, and there's great chance that the DLCs will be available on PSN as many DLCs are for other games. I strongly recommend you to purchase the retail version of PS3 'Shivering Isles' if you own the previous version of PS3 'Oblivion' for it already contains 'Knights of the Nine'. If you decide to go with GOTY edition, then make sure you uninstall the entire older version before you reinstall with the newer version. And yes, you can use the older save game files, but they could potentially cause some stability issues for the console version as opposed to the PC version. If you never played 'Oblivion', GOTY edition is a terrific purchase with infinite value. The graphic is simply breathtaking, and loading time is almost as fast as most of PC. There's no shame in owning this excellent game on PS3 console. One downside of console version is the lack of access to thousands of user-created mods created by 'TES Construction Set'. They are only compatible for PC.

This game literally never ends. You'll spends hundreds of hours and one day, you'll simply quit at your own device. 'Oblivion' is the one game truly non-linear, free-form, open-ended to the bitter end, indeed.

Impressive game all around

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This really is an exceptional game. The world rendering is magnificent and the character and weapons graphics models are very good. The physics engine in the game is really impressive. Shoot an arrow into a dead rat and it recoils, drop your sword on a rocky slope and watch it slide into the water below. You're ability to interact with the environment is nicely done. Most items that you can take into your inventory can also be manually manipulated, moved from place to place, or tossed across the room. They land with a satisfying clatter. That sort of touch really enhances the immersive experience.

Combat is basically shoot or chop at the bad guy until he's down. You don't know much damage you've done or how much more you have to do before that happens. Its fast and furious with a lot of movement at times. Battles can last a long time, however, especially outdoors where you can run away for a bit, regenerate, and then go back at it. Ranged battles can also last awhile since the game mechanics allows you to dodge missiles of both conventional and magical variety and use cover effectively.

Gameplay can be pleasantly non-linear. There is the save-the-world main quest line which I have yet to complete. The game, however, doesn't lock you into it once it starts. Instead, you may deviate your activities to other shorter quest lines or dive into the many, many "dungeon-environments" that dot the landscape. The latter are a good way to get money and experience. Since there is noone else in the world, the dungeons will remain clear for a much longer period of time, but they will repopulate over time.

The quests themselves were generally more compelling than in other games in this genre. Many of them involved recovering a lost or stolen item, finding a missing person, researching an unusual occurence, exploring a new area, etc. Almost none of them were of the kill or gather X of Y variety. Occasionally, they even present the player with a moral choice, for example, return to the lost item to its rightful owner or return it to your employer. Each choice has a different consequence.

The dialogue from the NPCs was generally very much better than average. The voice acting talent also had quite high production values. There could have been more of them, however, as it seemed that most of the people you met had a voice chosen from one of eight. I preferred the actors with the English accents as an American accent in a game of this sort is a bit like a a Coke machine in Westminster Abbey. That's just my own personal prejudice, however.

I have a few minor quibbles however. There are far too few hot key slots. You will end up with a huge number of spells and items but only eight hot key slots in which to put them. This leads to the somewhat goofy practice of stopping in the midst of a pitched battle to down a potion, switch a spell, or change out some armor. This definitely takes away from the realism of the situation. Secondly, the manual is a bit thin for a game as rich as this one. More details of the game mechanics would be helpful. For example, we are told that wearing thicker varieties of armor dimishes spell effects, but we are not told by how much. Also there are many different potenial classes in the game, but the manual does not describe anything about them. This information appears at character-create, you make a choice, and that point it disappears again. Finally, it would nice if the game saved your state when you quit. A number of times I have returned to the game to find that I'm moved backwards in time a bit, and the quest I thought was finished, isn't

Kiss your life goodbye.....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: December 07, 2007
Author: Amazon User

...because you'll be stuck in Cyrodil for a LONG time! This game has over 200 hours of gameplay! It is an absolute must have. I bought this game back in October. It's now close to December, and I'm still not even %50 completed yet! This game is fantastic.

First off, let me say if you're not into the Dungeons & Dragons type of game, this isn't for you. However, if you are a fan of D&D, or ever were, this game is tailor made for you.

And the attention to details is astonishing. From creating a character, to growing as an adventurer, you can pick absolutely any path you want. Wanna be a divine knight? ok.
Wanna be an assassin? can do.
Wanna be a vampire? step on up.
A mage? got that covered too.
Oh, an archer you say? yup.
A thief? sure why not.
How about a warrior? absolutely.

And as far as races go, you can be man or woman, and many different races, from part lizard, to part cat, to orc, to man, to a few different types of elf, the options are endless.

And you can even custom build your class. Say you want to be a warrior mage, or a Mage thief. It's all possible.

You even pick your zodiac, and what sign you were born under directly influences your attribute bonuses.

AND THAT'S JUST THE BEGINNING!

You adventure all over the country of Cyrodil, visiting the many cities. And nearly every single resident of the cities, including the counts & countesses, the shop owners, and the police have tasks for you to take on, earning yourself status, gold, magic weapons & armor, etc.

There are also many things hidden off the beaten path, from long abandoned mines and caves, full of monsters, riches, and adventures, to towns that are never outlined on the map, with their own set of residents with adventures to undertake!

There is also the main task - Save the world from the Daemons of Oblivion, who have assassinated the king and are trying to destroy the world of mankind!

It's absolutely the most fun I've ever had with a video game, and it just never ends! Some games, you pay $60 for and play for 8 hours and it's over. This game, you pay $60, and you won't need another game for a year!!!

Overall, the best game I've ever owned. I'd give it more stars if I could.

Released Too Soon...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 17 / 34
Date: October 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

THe following are my pros and cons for this title:

Pros:
Captivating game. I cannot put the controller down.
Superb graphics.
Awesome sound and sound effects.

Cons:
Poorly ported. This game is full of bugs and locks up frequently. One example is while completing the thieve's guild, I went to the Anvil castle for the closing cutscene and to get the cowl. Following the cutscene, the Countess walks to her thown, sits backwards in mid air and the game will not give me the Gray Fox's cowl. My character is locked in place and cannot move. I have to shutdown the system and reboot, then load at the last save point. I cannot complete this quest without starting over. This is only one example of a mirad of bugs in this game. Great concept, poor programming skills.

I spoke with Bethesda and they say nothing is wrong with their game. They told me to send my PS3 back to Sony for repair....nice software vendor!

Absolute Addiction - Great Game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 10, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Finally a RPG game that meets and exceeds all expectations I have ever had for RPG's. You are free to roam the world and do as you please. The graphics are mind blowing as is the gameplay itself. But I have to admit, nothing is perfect. As my characters speed increased, I find it hard to run all out through the world as the graphics pauses and does not seem to be able to keep up. (My only legit complaint.) After weeks and weeks of daily play (I'm telling you it IS addictive!) I am finding it a bit overwhelming. There are so many quests and side quests that I get confused and find myself thinking where do I go and what do I do. With that said, that is a good thing because that means this is a game that there is no way you can get and just run through and complete in a few weeks. I'm suspecting YEARS of game play with this one. I have the game of the year addition for PS3 and love it. If you are into single player RPG's this version is a MUST OWN! Buy it, enjoy it for years! It is a good investment for your gaming collection.

Hard to beat

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game on the word of a friend that i wouldn't be able to put it down. I started off slow but within two days I couldn't stop playing. From being a gladiator to a pickpocket this game has it all. If you are looking for a way to escape the everyday then look no further. Oblivion will remove you from the ordinary and place you in to a world so realistic you won't want to return.

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